Sirius was planning to slip out of their flat before Remus woke up again, but Remus’ stupid-werewolf-hearing had foiled his plan this time. When Sirius got to the front door, Remus was leaning against it, arms folded across his chest, looking exhausted.
“Another early start?” He asked.
“Yeah,” Sirius waited for him to move, “Are you going to let me leave?”
Remus flinched slightly at the edge in his voice and Sirius immediately felt terrible. None of this was Remus’ fault.
As Remus stepped away from the door, he sighed as he noticed the backpack in Sirius’ hand, “You used to talk to me about shit that was bothering you, Pads, and I don’t know when that changed.”
“I know. I’m just— Give me a week, Moons. One week, and I'll be back to normal, and I’Il— I'll be over you and it’ll be like before. Just a week and you'll have the old me back. It's that easy, I promise.” Sirius looked at Remus to find his eyes wide, then he caught up on what he’d said. “Oh, fuck.” He left the flat before Remus could say anything and immediately apparated to James and Lily’s garden.
Lily, who had been looking out of the kitchen window while she washed up, jumped and then scowled at him as he mouthed an apology at her. A few moments later, James met him at the back door.
“Why are you up this early?” He asked, looking at him suspiciously.
“Just making the most of the break from work.” Sirius wouldn’t have believed himself either.
"You're self-destructing." It wasn’t a question.
"I'm enjoying the moment. Ever heard of that?” He snapped back, which seemed to tickle James.
“You’re avoiding Remus?” They sat down at the kitchen table as Lily brought them both a mug of tea.
“Fucking hell, he works fast.” Sirius groaned.
“I mean,” She paused, tilting her head in thought, “Not just today, for a while now.”
“He noticed?”
“Of course he noticed.” She joined them, clutching a huge mug of coffee, “How could he not? The two of you are inseparable.”
“Well that’s just it, isn’t it?” Sirius mumbled.
“Pads?”
“I may have realised that I… have feelings for him, ok?” Sirius closed his eyes, “I don’t know when it happened, or how it happened, but lately, it’s just been a lot to deal with, and I didn’t want to burden him with anything else or make him feel weird or pressured or like I was going to jump him in the night.”
“So you ran away?” James asked. “You just left?”
“Not exactly.” Sirius looked down at his bag, “Well, a little bit exactly. But I also somehow blurted it out on my way here and told him to give me a week to get over it.”
Lily choked on her coffee. James rubbed her back instinctively and it made Sirius’ heart hurt. “You told him?”
“I told him I needed a week to get over him and then we could go back to normal.” Sirius put his head down on the table with a thunk. “We’re never going back to normal, are we?”
“Probably not?” James held back a laugh, “Ah! Speak of the devil.” Sirius looked over his shoulder and saw Remus almost at the back door. “We should probably leave you to talk about this.”
Before Sirius could protest, the two of them scampered away, laughing to themselves, as Remus entered the kitchen with a strange look on his face. He stayed next to the door, which instantly irked Sirius.
“You’re a big fan of leaning on doors today.” He turned back to his tea. “Look, is there something you wanted?” Remus just continued to stare at him, he could feel his eyes boring into the back of his neck, “We can just pretend that earlier never happened, it’s fine. It doesn’t need to be a big deal.”
“Sorry, Pads, I’m not as good of an actor as you,” Remus said quietly.
“Then what do you want, Remus?” He huffed, “I have things to do, and most of them include me trying not to think about you, and this isn’t exactly helping.”
Remus sat down in Lily’s seat and continued to stare at him, but it was different from the way he’d looked at him earlier. There was a spark in his eyes and a half smile played across his lips.
"You staring at me like that is only giving me false hope so I'm going to need you to stop, please.” Sirius looked down at his mug, hoping that Remus would just leave, but instead, he leaned towards Sirius, lifted his chin gently, and brushed their lips together for a moment.
Sirius put a hand on his jaw as he began to pull away. Their eyes met. “Do that again," he whispered.
Remus didn’t need telling twice and this time Sirius actually had the chance to kiss him back. He grasped the front of Remus’ jumper and pulled him closer, feeling him smile into the kiss. When he reluctantly pulled away, Remus had his stupid-soft-Moony-smile on his face and his cheeks were pinker than Sirius had ever seen them. He allowed himself to return the smile tentatively.
“I might need a week to get over that.” Remus said, with a soft laugh.
“I’m never going to hear the end of this, am I?” Sirius grumbled.
“Not a chance.”